Started by its founding committee as a memorial to the fallen in the closing years of World War 2, the hall continues to thrive and be a place that is available for everyone to use. We’ve kept pace (just) with the many new regulations. They seem to come in every week. And, hopefully with some help from the public purse, the finances will be available to allow us to sort out the most urgent problems, meet yet more regulations and, with luck, to attract some quality weekend hirings. Many other villages are not as lucky. Their halls are little used or may even have closed. OK, so here in Wickhambrook we still suffer from mindless detractors and vandalism, the cost of which has raised hiring prices, but we won’t dwell on that unhappy side of things.
The credit for all the successes in community life over past years goes, deservedly, to many village people. Some are no longer with us and it is a sadness that we cannot show them what we are doing with the inheritance they left us. Nothing can take away from them the credit for the foresight, purchase and then the breathtakingly daring development of the former ‘6 acres’ to extend the MSC recreation field. The dogged organising of public events for entertainment and fund-raising over many decades from New Years Eve dances to top quality Charity Balls, the refreshing annual brilliance of the pantos, the selflessness of the ‘every-week-come-what-may’ Youth Club organisers, the much loved annual Carnival… and so much more.
Meanwhile little credit goes to the behind-the-scenes committee folk of all the village organisations who maintain the foundations on which the village successes are built and the community spirit which is created. In fact the MSC committee has sometimes come in for some painfully harsh criticism when someone’s favourite activity has to be curtailed to accommodate existing or new activities preferred by others. It’s often a tightrope walk keeping the village hall open and available for everyone; usually with too little money and inadequate support. So it is surprising that while activities flourish and fade, while enthusiasts come and go, for many years past the MSC Trust, and latterly also the management committee, have been Chaired by one person - David Turner.
David’s contribution has been to provide stability. To ensure that the enthusiasm of new hall committees is informed with an historical context, to protect the wider interests of the village community when single activity groups could swamp the valued but quieter activities, to bear in mind and protect the legacy we will leave for future generations of hall and recreation field users. It isn’t a role which is guaranteed to bring popularity, but it has been done and it was only when David resigned (it would be fairer and more accurate to say ‘retired’) from the hall’s management committee that we quickly, indeed very quickly, realised that we were losing a person whose experience and knowledge of the historical context has been to the benefit of the hall for years. We all felt that we still needed his experience and steadying hand which the newbies to the hall's committee cannot hope to provide. We need some continuity in the affairs of the hall, just as there is continuity in the rolling affairs of the village. So it was suggested, and agreed by all, that David should be offered Honorary Lifetime Membership of the hall’s community with a permanent seat on the management committee, with full voting rights, to be occupied whenever he feels he can make a contribution to the business in hand, or provide some background to a contentious topic, or if invited by a struggling committee to help find a solution to a vexing problem. The Trustees of the Memorial Social Centre, recognising the benefit to the village of continuity of experience in MSC affairs, unanimously approved that the offer be made and we are pleased to report that David has accepted the offer. We look forward to his continuing contributions to the committee’s work.
In the next issues of The Scene: Village Hall developments, tasks in hand and completed, meeting new regulations, progress reports on the upgrade projects, and plans for the future. Plus, where the money comes from to keep the hall going and, perhaps more importantly, where it goes. |
